Improvisation was the blood and bone of jazz, and in the classic, New Orleans jazz it was collective improvisation in which each performer, seemingly going his own melodic way, played in harmony, dissonance, or counterpoint with the improvisations of his colleagues. Quite unlike ragtime, which was written down in many cases by its composers and could be repeated note for note (if not expression for expression) by others, jazz was a performer's not a composer's art.
Russell LynesThe true snob never rests; there is always a higher goal to attain, and there are, by the same token, always more and more people to look down upon.
Russell LynesCamouflage is a game we all like to play, but our secrets are as surely revealed by what we want to seem to be as by what we want to conceal.
Russell LynesIt is always well to accept your own shortcomings with candor but to regard those of your friends with polite incredulity.
Russell LynesA truly appreciative child will break, lose, spoil, or fondle to death any really successful gift within a matter of minutes.
Russell LynesThe world of the arts is by no means always comfortable, but neither is it likely ever to be boring. It is full of surprises, humor, traps for the unwary, and challenges to smugness. It is a world of moods as well as of revelation, of beliefs and fears, of unpleasant truth as well as of delicious fantasy. Perhaps it is arrogant to say that anyone who does not venture into this world is only half-interested in life. I say it, nonetheless.
Russell Lynes